Mark Landsbaum: Speaking truth to power

Dr. Benjamin Carson speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton February 7, 2013 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Barack Obama reportedly used the occasion to call for unity and common ground Washington politics. (Photo by Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images) POOL, GETTY IMAGES

It seems only appropriate that Dr. Benjamin Carson prayed before going to the podium at the recent National Prayer Breakfast, where he set off a mild tempest by criticizing policies identified with the man seated to his right, President Barack Obama. But as he explained later, "I always pray before I give a speech, and ask God to tell me what to say."

If only we all stopped to pray before speaking. Or writing, for that matter.

Carson, who probably could get away with it because he said it at a prayer breakfast, told everyone that his role model is Jesus. Followers of Jesus understand that to mean that Carson, an African-American neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins University, probably adheres to the biblical admonition to "speak the truth in love."

And speak it he did. Tough love, you might say, as the president sat a few feet away, seemingly not as amused as the rest of the audience at the good doctor's humorous anecdotes. Perhaps for good reason.

Undeniably, many of Carson's truths cut to the bone on highly controversial political and social issues – including education, the national debt, taxes, health care and personal responsibility, prompting approving applause between the guffaws. The doctor is a funny guy, and a smart one.

Perhaps most significantly, Carson condemned political correctness as "dangerous" and a "horrible thing" counter to the nation's founding principles of freedoms of thought and expression. It muzzles people, he said.

People should be able to speak their minds in America without being intimidated, he stressed. He said we should jettison the politically correct notion that there must be unanimity of thought and speech. Instead, "we need to concentrate on being respectful to those people with whom we disagree."

At the same time, "Somebody has to be courageous enough to stand up to the bullies," Carson said.

The doctor delivered a harsh critique of many aspects of Obama's policy, without personally attacking or demeaning the president, seated to his right.

Carson bluntly criticized the entitlement mentality's current vogue. His single mother raised him in dire poverty, but "would never allow herself to be a victim, no matter what happened." She never made excuses, he said, and wouldn't allow him to, either. From that, Carson said he learned, "if you don't accept excuses, pretty soon people stop giving them and then start looking for solutions."

"That," he said, "is a critical issue when it comes to success."

Obama chortled at the doctor's jokes, some delivered in the form of parables, a teaching method Carson said he models after his role model's penchant for doing the same. He spoke of a family with five children fallen on hard times where the father tells three of the kids their allowances will be cut, but their two siblings will get their allowances raised, because "they're special."

"How do you think that's going to go down?" he asked rhetorically, while the president, who has engineered billions of dollars of wealth transfers, looked on. "Not too well," Carson answered himself.

For a better way, Carson turned to the Bible, citing the simple alternative devised by "the fairest individual in the universe, God."

"It's called a tithe," Carson said. The biblical 10 percent isn't the point, he explained, the biblical proportionality is. "You make $10, you put in one."

Dr. Benjamin Carson talks about taxes and more

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